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The hearings of the designated commissioners are over, but nothing has been finally decided yet.
Yesterday it was the turn of the designated Executive Vice-Presidents. The tone was more poisonous than at the previous hearings. This was not only because the most important Commission jobs were at stake, but also because national political disputes were brought to the European level.
Stéphane Séjourné was vilified by French right-wingers and left-wingers as a recipient of Macron’s orders, while Spanish right-wingers tried to blame Teresa Ribera for the storm disaster in Valencia. Read the reports on the content of the individual hearings in today’s edition.
Although the Vice-Presidents-designate did relatively well in the hearings, their confirmation is anything but certain. Read Till Hoppe‘s analysis of why Parliament still needs more time to make its decision on the composition of the Commission.
Have a nice day.
The European Parliament has postponed the decision on the designated Vice-Presidents of the new EU Commission, probably until next week. The group leaders of the EPP, S&D and Renew wanted to try to find a joint solution and maintain their pro-European alliance during this time, according to Parliament. The aim is still for the new Commission to be able to start work on Dec. 1. The final vote is currently scheduled for Nov. 27.
Negotiations between the three factions of the Von der Leyen coalition were still ongoing in the evening. The Social Democrats in particular are resisting the delay. Prior to the hearings of the six executive vice presidents on Tuesday, tensions between the camps had increased significantly. At Tuesday’s meeting, MEPs from the S&D, Liberals, Greens and Left sharply attacked the designated Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms, Raffaele Fitto, a party colleague of Italy’s right-wing head of government Giorgia Meloni. The Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribera in turn had to listen to criticism from EPP and right-wing MEPs.
The coordinators of the parliamentary groups in the specialist committees postponed the assessment of the candidates on Tuesday. However, the interdependencies between the parliamentary groups suggest that both Ribera and Fitto will ultimately receive the necessary support from parliament. The liberal candidate Stéphane Séjourné was already given a “decent” performance yesterday, according to the EPP coordinator in the Internal Market Committee, Andreas Schwab (CDU).
In addition, in order to push through the ECR politician Fitto against the resistance of the Social Democrats and Liberals, the Christian Democrats would have to make common cause with the far-right groups – including the AfD group Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN). Group leader Manfred Weber wants to avoid this.
Weber is reportedly urging his S&D and Renew colleagues, Iratxe García Pérez and Valérie Hayer, to also support the Hungarian Commissioner candidate Olivér Várhelyi as part of a deal. The CSU politician apparently does not want to expose himself to the criticism of making common cause with the far right. Social Democrats and liberals are already accusing him of showing little fear of contact.
Várhelyi, Commissioner-designate for Health and Animal Welfare, is the only one of the ordinary Commissioners who has not yet been given the green light. The Social Democrats are critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s confidant and are calling for at least substantial changes to Várhelyi’s portfolio. The coordinators also want to discuss him again on Wednesday. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is cautious, however, as she does not want to alienate either Orbán or Meloni. The CDU politician intervened again yesterday in the negotiations between the group leaders.
Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens do not consider Fitto suitable for the post of Vice-President of the Commission. As an MEP, he had rejected rule of law proceedings against Hungary and Poland, and criticized Green MEP Vladimir Prebilič. Fitto had argued that the EU institutions wanted to undermine democratically elected governments in this way, said Liberal MEP Raquel Garcia Hermida-Van der Walle.
Fitto justified himself by saying that these were individual statements from a political debate a few years ago and from “a political role that we all have”. As Italy’s Minister for Europe, he had campaigned for the protection of the rule of law in the Council over the past two years. The rule of law is not only a fundamental value of the EU, Fitto affirmed, but also a “decisive and fundamental point for my European conviction”.
Left-wing MEP Valentina Palmisano reproached Fitto for not agreeing to the resilience and recovery fund in 2021. This was an important symbol of European solidarity. Fitto justified himself by saying that his group still had doubts about its implementation. As a minister, he had had a positive experience with the coronavirus recovery fund. “If I had to vote tomorrow, I would vote in favor.” with Manuel Berkel, Stephan Israel
With provocations on climate protection, right-wing deputies repeatedly caused unrest in the European Parliament on Tuesday evening during the hearing of Spanish Social Democrat Teresa Ribera. Spanish EPP politicians also hurled accusations regarding the flood disaster in the south of the country. “History will judge them,” said PP deputy Dolors Montserrat to loud applause.
However, with their numerous allegations against Ribera concerning the flood disaster, the Spanish EPP members are also trying to deflect from their own shortcomings. In Valencia, 130,000 demonstrators gathered over the weekend, demanding the resignation of regional president and PP politician Carlos Mazón.
Teresa Ribera responded to this storm with great seriousness, repeatedly admonishing individual deputies to maintain a polite tone. It took over an hour before she finally brushed off repeated accusations with a smile. Her earnestness befits a future Competition Commissioner who must occasionally resist the pressure of member states to approve billion-dollar subsidies. Her factual and consistent manner could also benefit her in international disputes with eccentric tech billionaires.
Core questions about the portfolio of the designated Competition Commissioner and Executive Vice-President for a clean, fair, and competitive transition were somewhat sidelined by the questions about the flood disaster. Yet there was indeed well-founded criticism:
Lack of experience as a competition policymaker: Ribera merely referred to the team in the Directorate-General and a “system of checks and balances.” When asked the technical question of how she views Mario Draghi’s proposal for a “New Competition Instrument,” aimed at better enforcing competition law in four weak areas, she did not have a clear answer.
Limited staffing of the Directorate-General: The candidate emphasized only the importance of cooperation with other competition authorities.
Joint responsibility for competition and ecological transformation, as well as possible conflicts of interest: CSU politician Markus Ferber wanted to know how Ribera would ensure independence in a competition procedure from the energy sector that dates back to her time as a minister in Spain. Ribera assured that the Directorate-General would prevent conflicts of interest in individual cases as usual.
Ribera appeared determined on her core issue of climate protection. “We cannot constantly debate whether to commit to ecological measures or not,” said the experienced environmental politician. Companies need planning security. Ribera also signaled that the Clean Industrial Deal should not support only individual sectors-as the previous Commission initially intended with the Net-Zero Industry Act.
However, Ribera made no concrete concessions to the conservatives in Parliament.
Stéphane Séjourné spoke quietly, almost shyly during his hearing. Perhaps the former Liberal group leader wanted to avoid giving the impression of arrogance to his former colleagues. But for all his respect for Parliament, even the designated Vice-President of the Commission remained rather non-committal in his statements.
As “Commissioner for Prosperity and a European Industrial Strategy”, Séjourné faces a major task in view of the bad news from the industry. Nevertheless, he does not want to shake the Green Deal. “There will be no industry without decarbonization and there will be no decarbonization without industry”, explained Séjourné at the start of his hearing. It is therefore important that the manufacturing industry remains in Europe and that Europe catches up in terms of future technologies.
Séjourné announced sectoral industrial strategies for all strategically important economic sectors. In particular, he wants to focus on the concept of “green lead markets“, which should guarantee European industry a certain demand for its products. Séjourné also addressed the following topics:
Kaja Kallas received the most applause when she rejected an MEP’s accusation that she was against an end to the war in Ukraine. She is for peace, emphasized the designated EU foreign affairs representative. However, the question was what the right strategy for peace was. The Minsk agreements, for example, had not brought peace, but more wars. Russia must lose its last colonial war.
Kaja Kallas spoke plainly in her opening statement. Ukraine must win, she said, because anything else would be an invitation to dictatorships elsewhere in the world to annex a piece of their neighboring country. She also confirmed her reputation as a hawk when it comes to Russia. For example, she spoke out in favor of using the €300 billion in frozen Russian state bank funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Russia was destroying Ukraine and had to pay for it.
But what if Donald Trump stops supporting Ukraine after returning to the White House? Nobody knows what the president-elect will do. She will contact representatives of the new US administration even before Trump officially takes office, said Kallas. History shows that isolationism has never paid off for the USA. And the USA and Europe have always been strong together as allies.
What if the Trump administration focuses entirely on China? If the US is worried about China, it should be worried about Russia first, emphasized Kaja Kallas. China’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is being underestimated. It could not be that North Korea, China and Iran were supplying more ammunition or providing more support for Russia’s arms industry than Ukraine’s allies.
When asked about cooperation with NATO, Kallas said that she saw two different tasks for the EU and the alliance. The EU should focus on strengthening the defense industry, while NATO should concentrate on purely military defense. The Estonian rejected the idea of a European army. There is no need for parallel structures or two separate military powers.
Kaja Kallas gave vague answers to questions about crises in Africa and the Middle East conflict in particular. She did not address the accusation of a double standard with regard to Russia’s war of aggression and Israel’s response to the Hamas attack. The former head of government pleaded for an immediate ceasefire, the release of the hostages and free access for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Her standard repertoire also included a commitment to a two-state solution.
The Foreign Affairs Commissioner-designate did not respond to the question of whether the association agreement with Israel should be suspended and how she qualified the actions of Israel’s armed forces. The situation in the Western Balkans and the dialog between Belgrade and Pristina, in which the incumbent Josep Borrell had invested a great deal of energy, but without any measurable success, were practically non-issues.
Roxana Mînzatu, the designated Executive Vice President for Skills, Competencies and Foresight, appeared nervous at the start of her hearing. In her opening statement, she listed the numerous initiatives that she wants to launch in her area of responsibility, most of which are already known from her mission letter. She knows that she has a lot to do, as she admitted in very confident English. Without becoming pathetic, however, the relatively unknown Romanian social democrat said: “The risk is not to set goals that are too high and not achieve them, but to set goals that are too low and then achieve them.”
As the hearing progressed, Mînzatu became more confident. She spoke more freely and was also quick-witted. When a Hungarian MEP asked her whether the Commission would soon release the Erasmus Plus funds for Hungary, Mînzatu referred to the rule of law problems in Hungary. “Whether Hungary manages to solve these issues and establish trust is entirely up to [Hungary] and I hope and wish that the Hungarian government recognizes this,” Mînzatu said, earning a round of applause.
The Romanian showed that she was well prepared for the hearing with her detailed knowledge. For example, when she mentioned that the reform of the coordination of social security systems has been stalled for 7.5 years or how individual support programs are already interlocking.
Roxana Mînzatu committed to “decent wages and fair working conditions, that employees must have the same rights offline as online”. All of this should definitely be part of her “Quality Job Roadmap”, which she intends to draw up in the first few months. She was asked several times whether she wanted to propose a directive on the regulation of AI in the work context – a key wish of many parliamentarians in the EMPL Committee, but one that has not yet appeared in either the political guidelines or the mission letter. Mînzatu’s response: “In my opinion, what we have done so far is not enough.”
However, it was not usually more specific. This is because the new Commission is based on the premise of competitiveness and the economy is calling for fewer rather than more rules. Mînzatu also emphasizes: “AI offers great opportunities and also creates high-quality jobs. I can’t yet say whether we will present a new law on this or not.” The same applies to the reform of the European Labor Authority (ELA), new rules for teleworking and numerous other dossiers.
Things only got really uncomfortable once. Mînzatu was asked by CDU politician and parliamentary vice-president Sabine Verheyen whether it was true that she had extended her house in Brașov despite monument protection requirements. However, Mînzatu remained confident: “I have official documents from 2011 and from Monday that this house is not a historical monument.”
Right at the start of the confirmation hearing, Henna Virkkunen makes her position clear: She comes from a small country on the edge of Europe, she says, with a hostile neighbor. Security is, therefore, naturally one of her priorities.
In fact, the topic of security runs through the entire portfolio of the designated Executive Vice-President for Technical Sovereignty, Security and Democracy. As a former Minister of Education in her native Finland and then a Member of the European Parliament, the EPP politician knows both how to run a ministry and how the Parliament works.
Her opening statement holds no surprises and Virkkunen remains rather pale throughout the hearing. The Commissioner-designate for Digital Affairs wants to ensure that Europe becomes more technologically sovereign – both in the digital and military fields. “The best investment in our security is to invest in Ukraine“, she makes clear. She calls the USA an important trading partner and an important strategic partner in terms of security.
She wants to promote innovation and investment in future technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum and space technologies. She mentions the Digital Fairness Act and the Digital Networks Act, both of which she wants to promote. Improving the protection of minors in the digital world is one of her priorities.
Much like her predecessor Thierry Breton, she emphasizes with regard to the new digital laws: “Everyone who wants to do business in Europe must abide by our rules.” This also applies to large platforms such as X. And when asked how she intends to deal with communication technology from China, she says that she is not satisfied with the fact that 42% of Europeans communicate with technology from China. “Some member states don’t take this seriously enough.” She wants to change that.
In addition to the new initiatives that she wants to tackle, she cites the implementation and revision of existing legislation as another priority. This also involves finding out where there are overlaps and possible contradictions, which she then wants to resolve. Some laws need a “fitness check” to see whether they still serve their purpose. Finally, she also declared the reduction of bureaucracy and excessive reporting obligations to be one of her priorities.
Overall, the parliamentarians seem to agree with Virkkunen as the future Commissioner. Positive voices also come from the other political groups. “Henna Virkkunen credibly conveys that she wants to tackle the reduction of bureaucracy and reporting obligations”, praised Svenja Hahn, Coordinator for Renew at IMCO. Unfortunately, however, she did not commit to the one-in-two-out principle despite being asked specific questions. Nor did she present any ideas of her own as to where she would like to cut back. Hahn liked Virkkunen’s announcement to consistently implement applicable laws such as the DSA. This is important in light of statements by US Vice-President-elect JD Vance that he wants to protect X owner Elon Musk from EU laws. “Unfortunately, despite my explicit question, there was no concrete answer from Virkkunen as to how she intends to strengthen cooperation with the USA and, for example, expand the dialog format of the Trade and Technology Council.”
Damian Boeselager, Greens/EFA shadow rapporteur in the ITRE for the Data Act, emphasized that Virkkunen had promised him, in response to his question, to work for data marketplaces for industrial data. “And she was the first to speak honestly in these weeks about the need for labor migration for competitiveness. Finally!”, said Boeselager.
The hearings of the designated commissioners are over, but nothing has been finally decided yet.
Yesterday it was the turn of the designated Executive Vice-Presidents. The tone was more poisonous than at the previous hearings. This was not only because the most important Commission jobs were at stake, but also because national political disputes were brought to the European level.
Stéphane Séjourné was vilified by French right-wingers and left-wingers as a recipient of Macron’s orders, while Spanish right-wingers tried to blame Teresa Ribera for the storm disaster in Valencia. Read the reports on the content of the individual hearings in today’s edition.
Although the Vice-Presidents-designate did relatively well in the hearings, their confirmation is anything but certain. Read Till Hoppe‘s analysis of why Parliament still needs more time to make its decision on the composition of the Commission.
Have a nice day.
The European Parliament has postponed the decision on the designated Vice-Presidents of the new EU Commission, probably until next week. The group leaders of the EPP, S&D and Renew wanted to try to find a joint solution and maintain their pro-European alliance during this time, according to Parliament. The aim is still for the new Commission to be able to start work on Dec. 1. The final vote is currently scheduled for Nov. 27.
Negotiations between the three factions of the Von der Leyen coalition were still ongoing in the evening. The Social Democrats in particular are resisting the delay. Prior to the hearings of the six executive vice presidents on Tuesday, tensions between the camps had increased significantly. At Tuesday’s meeting, MEPs from the S&D, Liberals, Greens and Left sharply attacked the designated Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms, Raffaele Fitto, a party colleague of Italy’s right-wing head of government Giorgia Meloni. The Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribera in turn had to listen to criticism from EPP and right-wing MEPs.
The coordinators of the parliamentary groups in the specialist committees postponed the assessment of the candidates on Tuesday. However, the interdependencies between the parliamentary groups suggest that both Ribera and Fitto will ultimately receive the necessary support from parliament. The liberal candidate Stéphane Séjourné was already given a “decent” performance yesterday, according to the EPP coordinator in the Internal Market Committee, Andreas Schwab (CDU).
In addition, in order to push through the ECR politician Fitto against the resistance of the Social Democrats and Liberals, the Christian Democrats would have to make common cause with the far-right groups – including the AfD group Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN). Group leader Manfred Weber wants to avoid this.
Weber is reportedly urging his S&D and Renew colleagues, Iratxe García Pérez and Valérie Hayer, to also support the Hungarian Commissioner candidate Olivér Várhelyi as part of a deal. The CSU politician apparently does not want to expose himself to the criticism of making common cause with the far right. Social Democrats and liberals are already accusing him of showing little fear of contact.
Várhelyi, Commissioner-designate for Health and Animal Welfare, is the only one of the ordinary Commissioners who has not yet been given the green light. The Social Democrats are critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s confidant and are calling for at least substantial changes to Várhelyi’s portfolio. The coordinators also want to discuss him again on Wednesday. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is cautious, however, as she does not want to alienate either Orbán or Meloni. The CDU politician intervened again yesterday in the negotiations between the group leaders.
Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens do not consider Fitto suitable for the post of Vice-President of the Commission. As an MEP, he had rejected rule of law proceedings against Hungary and Poland, and criticized Green MEP Vladimir Prebilič. Fitto had argued that the EU institutions wanted to undermine democratically elected governments in this way, said Liberal MEP Raquel Garcia Hermida-Van der Walle.
Fitto justified himself by saying that these were individual statements from a political debate a few years ago and from “a political role that we all have”. As Italy’s Minister for Europe, he had campaigned for the protection of the rule of law in the Council over the past two years. The rule of law is not only a fundamental value of the EU, Fitto affirmed, but also a “decisive and fundamental point for my European conviction”.
Left-wing MEP Valentina Palmisano reproached Fitto for not agreeing to the resilience and recovery fund in 2021. This was an important symbol of European solidarity. Fitto justified himself by saying that his group still had doubts about its implementation. As a minister, he had had a positive experience with the coronavirus recovery fund. “If I had to vote tomorrow, I would vote in favor.” with Manuel Berkel, Stephan Israel
With provocations on climate protection, right-wing deputies repeatedly caused unrest in the European Parliament on Tuesday evening during the hearing of Spanish Social Democrat Teresa Ribera. Spanish EPP politicians also hurled accusations regarding the flood disaster in the south of the country. “History will judge them,” said PP deputy Dolors Montserrat to loud applause.
However, with their numerous allegations against Ribera concerning the flood disaster, the Spanish EPP members are also trying to deflect from their own shortcomings. In Valencia, 130,000 demonstrators gathered over the weekend, demanding the resignation of regional president and PP politician Carlos Mazón.
Teresa Ribera responded to this storm with great seriousness, repeatedly admonishing individual deputies to maintain a polite tone. It took over an hour before she finally brushed off repeated accusations with a smile. Her earnestness befits a future Competition Commissioner who must occasionally resist the pressure of member states to approve billion-dollar subsidies. Her factual and consistent manner could also benefit her in international disputes with eccentric tech billionaires.
Core questions about the portfolio of the designated Competition Commissioner and Executive Vice-President for a clean, fair, and competitive transition were somewhat sidelined by the questions about the flood disaster. Yet there was indeed well-founded criticism:
Lack of experience as a competition policymaker: Ribera merely referred to the team in the Directorate-General and a “system of checks and balances.” When asked the technical question of how she views Mario Draghi’s proposal for a “New Competition Instrument,” aimed at better enforcing competition law in four weak areas, she did not have a clear answer.
Limited staffing of the Directorate-General: The candidate emphasized only the importance of cooperation with other competition authorities.
Joint responsibility for competition and ecological transformation, as well as possible conflicts of interest: CSU politician Markus Ferber wanted to know how Ribera would ensure independence in a competition procedure from the energy sector that dates back to her time as a minister in Spain. Ribera assured that the Directorate-General would prevent conflicts of interest in individual cases as usual.
Ribera appeared determined on her core issue of climate protection. “We cannot constantly debate whether to commit to ecological measures or not,” said the experienced environmental politician. Companies need planning security. Ribera also signaled that the Clean Industrial Deal should not support only individual sectors-as the previous Commission initially intended with the Net-Zero Industry Act.
However, Ribera made no concrete concessions to the conservatives in Parliament.
Stéphane Séjourné spoke quietly, almost shyly during his hearing. Perhaps the former Liberal group leader wanted to avoid giving the impression of arrogance to his former colleagues. But for all his respect for Parliament, even the designated Vice-President of the Commission remained rather non-committal in his statements.
As “Commissioner for Prosperity and a European Industrial Strategy”, Séjourné faces a major task in view of the bad news from the industry. Nevertheless, he does not want to shake the Green Deal. “There will be no industry without decarbonization and there will be no decarbonization without industry”, explained Séjourné at the start of his hearing. It is therefore important that the manufacturing industry remains in Europe and that Europe catches up in terms of future technologies.
Séjourné announced sectoral industrial strategies for all strategically important economic sectors. In particular, he wants to focus on the concept of “green lead markets“, which should guarantee European industry a certain demand for its products. Séjourné also addressed the following topics:
Kaja Kallas received the most applause when she rejected an MEP’s accusation that she was against an end to the war in Ukraine. She is for peace, emphasized the designated EU foreign affairs representative. However, the question was what the right strategy for peace was. The Minsk agreements, for example, had not brought peace, but more wars. Russia must lose its last colonial war.
Kaja Kallas spoke plainly in her opening statement. Ukraine must win, she said, because anything else would be an invitation to dictatorships elsewhere in the world to annex a piece of their neighboring country. She also confirmed her reputation as a hawk when it comes to Russia. For example, she spoke out in favor of using the €300 billion in frozen Russian state bank funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Russia was destroying Ukraine and had to pay for it.
But what if Donald Trump stops supporting Ukraine after returning to the White House? Nobody knows what the president-elect will do. She will contact representatives of the new US administration even before Trump officially takes office, said Kallas. History shows that isolationism has never paid off for the USA. And the USA and Europe have always been strong together as allies.
What if the Trump administration focuses entirely on China? If the US is worried about China, it should be worried about Russia first, emphasized Kaja Kallas. China’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is being underestimated. It could not be that North Korea, China and Iran were supplying more ammunition or providing more support for Russia’s arms industry than Ukraine’s allies.
When asked about cooperation with NATO, Kallas said that she saw two different tasks for the EU and the alliance. The EU should focus on strengthening the defense industry, while NATO should concentrate on purely military defense. The Estonian rejected the idea of a European army. There is no need for parallel structures or two separate military powers.
Kaja Kallas gave vague answers to questions about crises in Africa and the Middle East conflict in particular. She did not address the accusation of a double standard with regard to Russia’s war of aggression and Israel’s response to the Hamas attack. The former head of government pleaded for an immediate ceasefire, the release of the hostages and free access for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Her standard repertoire also included a commitment to a two-state solution.
The Foreign Affairs Commissioner-designate did not respond to the question of whether the association agreement with Israel should be suspended and how she qualified the actions of Israel’s armed forces. The situation in the Western Balkans and the dialog between Belgrade and Pristina, in which the incumbent Josep Borrell had invested a great deal of energy, but without any measurable success, were practically non-issues.
Roxana Mînzatu, the designated Executive Vice President for Skills, Competencies and Foresight, appeared nervous at the start of her hearing. In her opening statement, she listed the numerous initiatives that she wants to launch in her area of responsibility, most of which are already known from her mission letter. She knows that she has a lot to do, as she admitted in very confident English. Without becoming pathetic, however, the relatively unknown Romanian social democrat said: “The risk is not to set goals that are too high and not achieve them, but to set goals that are too low and then achieve them.”
As the hearing progressed, Mînzatu became more confident. She spoke more freely and was also quick-witted. When a Hungarian MEP asked her whether the Commission would soon release the Erasmus Plus funds for Hungary, Mînzatu referred to the rule of law problems in Hungary. “Whether Hungary manages to solve these issues and establish trust is entirely up to [Hungary] and I hope and wish that the Hungarian government recognizes this,” Mînzatu said, earning a round of applause.
The Romanian showed that she was well prepared for the hearing with her detailed knowledge. For example, when she mentioned that the reform of the coordination of social security systems has been stalled for 7.5 years or how individual support programs are already interlocking.
Roxana Mînzatu committed to “decent wages and fair working conditions, that employees must have the same rights offline as online”. All of this should definitely be part of her “Quality Job Roadmap”, which she intends to draw up in the first few months. She was asked several times whether she wanted to propose a directive on the regulation of AI in the work context – a key wish of many parliamentarians in the EMPL Committee, but one that has not yet appeared in either the political guidelines or the mission letter. Mînzatu’s response: “In my opinion, what we have done so far is not enough.”
However, it was not usually more specific. This is because the new Commission is based on the premise of competitiveness and the economy is calling for fewer rather than more rules. Mînzatu also emphasizes: “AI offers great opportunities and also creates high-quality jobs. I can’t yet say whether we will present a new law on this or not.” The same applies to the reform of the European Labor Authority (ELA), new rules for teleworking and numerous other dossiers.
Things only got really uncomfortable once. Mînzatu was asked by CDU politician and parliamentary vice-president Sabine Verheyen whether it was true that she had extended her house in Brașov despite monument protection requirements. However, Mînzatu remained confident: “I have official documents from 2011 and from Monday that this house is not a historical monument.”
Right at the start of the confirmation hearing, Henna Virkkunen makes her position clear: She comes from a small country on the edge of Europe, she says, with a hostile neighbor. Security is, therefore, naturally one of her priorities.
In fact, the topic of security runs through the entire portfolio of the designated Executive Vice-President for Technical Sovereignty, Security and Democracy. As a former Minister of Education in her native Finland and then a Member of the European Parliament, the EPP politician knows both how to run a ministry and how the Parliament works.
Her opening statement holds no surprises and Virkkunen remains rather pale throughout the hearing. The Commissioner-designate for Digital Affairs wants to ensure that Europe becomes more technologically sovereign – both in the digital and military fields. “The best investment in our security is to invest in Ukraine“, she makes clear. She calls the USA an important trading partner and an important strategic partner in terms of security.
She wants to promote innovation and investment in future technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum and space technologies. She mentions the Digital Fairness Act and the Digital Networks Act, both of which she wants to promote. Improving the protection of minors in the digital world is one of her priorities.
Much like her predecessor Thierry Breton, she emphasizes with regard to the new digital laws: “Everyone who wants to do business in Europe must abide by our rules.” This also applies to large platforms such as X. And when asked how she intends to deal with communication technology from China, she says that she is not satisfied with the fact that 42% of Europeans communicate with technology from China. “Some member states don’t take this seriously enough.” She wants to change that.
In addition to the new initiatives that she wants to tackle, she cites the implementation and revision of existing legislation as another priority. This also involves finding out where there are overlaps and possible contradictions, which she then wants to resolve. Some laws need a “fitness check” to see whether they still serve their purpose. Finally, she also declared the reduction of bureaucracy and excessive reporting obligations to be one of her priorities.
Overall, the parliamentarians seem to agree with Virkkunen as the future Commissioner. Positive voices also come from the other political groups. “Henna Virkkunen credibly conveys that she wants to tackle the reduction of bureaucracy and reporting obligations”, praised Svenja Hahn, Coordinator for Renew at IMCO. Unfortunately, however, she did not commit to the one-in-two-out principle despite being asked specific questions. Nor did she present any ideas of her own as to where she would like to cut back. Hahn liked Virkkunen’s announcement to consistently implement applicable laws such as the DSA. This is important in light of statements by US Vice-President-elect JD Vance that he wants to protect X owner Elon Musk from EU laws. “Unfortunately, despite my explicit question, there was no concrete answer from Virkkunen as to how she intends to strengthen cooperation with the USA and, for example, expand the dialog format of the Trade and Technology Council.”
Damian Boeselager, Greens/EFA shadow rapporteur in the ITRE for the Data Act, emphasized that Virkkunen had promised him, in response to his question, to work for data marketplaces for industrial data. “And she was the first to speak honestly in these weeks about the need for labor migration for competitiveness. Finally!”, said Boeselager.